What Is Iran Building Now in the Zagros Mountains?

Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz remains a powerful bargaining chip

Despite efforts by U.S. negotiators, Iran says it wants to charge a toll for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. It's yet another unresolved issue of the U.S.-Iran war.

This Republican Has a Wild Idea for Fixing Housing Prices: Let the Market Actually Work

Iran threatens response without ‘full implementation’ of US deal

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf has warned of an Iranian response if the U.S. and Israel breach the interim peace deal, as Tehran prepares to bury its former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “We strongly demand full implementation of the agreements, and if the U.S. and the Zionist regime fail to fulfill their commitments, Iran…

Iran’s supreme leader bails on first day of late dad’s funeral ceremonies

Iran's entire regime made a red carpet entrance to the first of three funeral ceremonies for late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — except the dead ayatollah's own son and successor.

Republicans circle wagons around indicted GOP AG: report

Ahead of the 250th birthday of the United States, a Louisiana judge tried to clear a courtroom when a grand jury returned an indictment of a political official. Now, the state supreme court has stepped in to save her. A grand jury returned an indictment on Thursday of Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, but less than 24 hours later, the conservative majority of the Louisiana Supreme Court stepped in to put the whole thing on hold. All four of the Republican justices voted in favor of Murrill and one Democratic one joined. The other Democrat and one Independent justice dissented. Local WWL News reported that the court issued Murrill's requested stay of the indictment, claiming that she "makes a compelling argument concerning the disturbing defects in the grand jury proceedings and in the trial court’s handling of those proceedings.”According to new allegations, Murrill used the chaos in the courtroom to claim that the special prosecutor failed to follow proper procedure in the indictment when people were removed from the courthouse. On Thursday, journalists, a producer, and a First Amendment lawyer were not only locked out but also handcuffed by court police when they tried to report on the case. James Finn, reporter for The Times-Picayune, wrote on X that "WWLTV producer Danny Montverde was placed in handcuffs by Orleans Sheriff’s Office court security officers after objecting to the closed-door nature of the proceeding."He added, "I was told I’d face contempt of court charges and threatened with cuffs if I didn’t leave the courthouse hallway. When I left the building and came back, security wouldn’t let me back in. When I questioned on what grounds, I was again threatened with handcuffs."Finn issued a follow-up report on the paper, stating that no one at the New Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office has commented on what happened. The office "has made no comment about its deputies’ conduct yesterday, incl cuffing/detaining journalist @DCMonteverde and 1A lawyer Elana Beiser for refusing to leave a taxpayer-funded courthouse. OPSO has not responded to inquiries from," Finn wrote on X. WWL TV reporter David Hammer commented on Thursday evening, "Code of Criminal Procedure Section 383 says grand jury 'indictments shall be returned into the district court in open court.” That did not happen in Judge Leon Roché’s court today and Danny was objecting on behalf of the public. @WWLTV ’s lawyer, Elana Beiser, was also detained.'"Beiser later quipped, "Nothing like a brief detention while standing up for freedom of information to celebrate Independence Day weekend.""The episode ended with combative, dueling press conferences on the courthouse steps. The special prosecutor assigned to the probe lamented that she had taken the case; defense lawyers for Attorney General Liz Murrill decried a system of 'kangaroo courts' in New Orleans," Finn wrote in his report. Murrill claimed in her court filing that there were also conflicts of interest involving Special Prosecutor Laurie White. She is currently being represented by the AG's office in a sexual harassment lawsuit. She also served as an attorney for Calvin Duncan, a central person in the case. For those reasons, Murrill claimed that it wasn't fair. The conservative majority of the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed that the case must be examined and that there are likely conflicts of interest. Everything must remain on hold until further investigation. They also agreed that Murrill is "likely to succeed in having the case dismissed and that she would suffer irreparable harm if it can move forward," said the Associated Press. “This indictment appears to turn the law on its head and flows from what appear to be extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties,” the court said in the Friday filing signed by Republican Justice Jay McCallum.“I hope this political witch hunt is not a harbinger of things to come,” she said in a statement Friday, “but I fear that it is.”Echoing President Donald Trump, Murrill claimed the matter was a "witch hunt."

Trump team believed Israel plotted assassinations to derail Iran talks: reports

Trump administration officials reportedly believed that the Israeli government intended to assassinate Iran’s top negotiators—including the country’s foreign minister—during peace talks with the US in an effort to sabotage diplomatic progress.The New York Times reported Thursday that “American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials—Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament—spiked during delicate ceasefire negotiations that began in April.” In response, the US “went so far as to ask other countries in the region to warn Iran about the possibility Israel could target the two officials,” according to the Times, which cited unnamed current and former American officials.The US and Israel have killed dozens of top Iranian officials since launching their illegal joint war in late February. But the allied countries reportedly removed Araghchi and Ghalibaf from their target list in late March, opening the possibility of high-level negotiations to end the war.But Israel remained bent on targeting the negotiators, according to the Times, whose reporting was later corroborated by The Washington Post.The Times detailed one dramatic incident in April, when Ghalibaf was planning to travel to Pakistan’s capital to meet with US Vice President JD Vance:Pakistani fighter jets escorted the Iranian airplanes carrying a delegation of more than 70 Iranians from the border of Iran to Islamabad and back again when the session was over.But on the way back to Tehran, an Israeli security threat emerged.Iran’s security forces notified the plane carrying Mr. Ghalibaf back to Tehran that they had picked up intelligence that Israel planned to attack the plane and that two Israeli fighter jets had entered Iran’s airspace from its western border near Iraq, the two officials said.Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser for Mr. Ghalibaf, who accompanied him to Islamabad, confirmed this account on his social media page. The plane made an emergency landing in the city of Mashhad, Iran’s closest airport to the Pakistani border, and the Iranian delegation traveled some eight hours by land back to Tehran, Mr. Mohammadi and the two officials said.The Post reported that “cracks emerged” between the US and Israeli approaches to the war following Israel’s assassination of top Iranian national security official Ali Larijani in March.“They’ve wiped out everybody,” Trump told reporters in late March, suggesting Israel’s assassination campaign was making it difficult to find potential negotiating partners.Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in response to the new reporting that “Israel is a state that, on paper, is a US partner, but in reality is so extreme in its obsession to undermine US diplomacy that it even tries to assassinate those the US engages with in crucial negotiations.”“I can’t recall a government as terrified of peace as the one running Israel,” Parsi added.At present, the Israeli government—led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—is endangering tenuous US-Iran peace talks with its continued occupation of and assault on Lebanon, which Iran has highlighted as a key factor in the negotiations.Visiting occupied southern Lebanon earlier this week, Netanyahu declared to Israeli troops that “our insistence is that we will not leave... until the threat is removed.”Parsi wrote earlier this week that “beyond his long-standing desire to use American force to subjugate Iran to Israeli domination and achieve a regional balance favorable to Israel,” Netanyahu “now also has stark political and personal reasons to restart the war” with Iran.“The [US and Iran’s memorandum of understanding] has come at a steep political cost for Netanyahu,” wrote Parsi. “His prospects for reelection in October are weaker than they have been in months. Once seen as the Israeli leader uniquely capable of delivering President Trump, he now confronts the prospect that both the war and the ensuing diplomacy will leave Israel in a strategically weaker position—undermining the very case he has made for his leadership.”“And of course,” Parsi added, “if he loses the elections, he will likely spend the next few years in jail, as he will lose his immunity as prime minister and face trial over corruption charges.”The story was published in partnership with Common Dreams, read the original here.

Republican unveils Declaration of Independence bill ahead of America's 250th birthday

Rep. Matt Van Epps said his bill reaffirming the Declaration of Independence directly responds to socialist candidates gaining ground in primaries.